By Olmin Leyba, The Philippine Star
MANILA, Philippines - Unlike the last time when his wards took a beating from a high-profile visiting club, coach Michael Weiss was in a much better mood after Azkals United's 2-4 loss on penalties to Korean third division club Icheon Citizen FC.
The German mentor sees positive things from the game, particularly how the young turks and new faces played and ably filled in for the veteran Azkals who were unavailable for Saturday night’s KIA Rio Cup charity match at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.
One was Fil-Italian Marwin Angeles, a member of the Under-23 SEA Games team who came in as sub and delivered the equalizer for an Azkals United side that was firing blanks most of the way.
Angeles found the back of the net off a corner by Misagh Bahadoran, himself an Azkal senior who usually lurks under the shadows of the more illustrious booters like the Younghusband brothers, at the 89th minute, forcing the 1-1 tie after regulation and the ensuing shootout that eventually went Icheon's way.
"I'm happy that Marwin took the opportunity to show what he's already, in some parts shown in Indonesia during our unsuccessful (Southeast Asian Games) campaign but I think the good proof that we've done good work even if we didn't get the results (there) is that we got a pool of young, interesting players," said Weiss.
Weiss used a practically different starting 11 that included U-23 mainstay Jerry Barbaso who hooked up with seasoned Fil-British Rob Gier in defense, and seldom-used Nestorio Margarse and Roel Gener.
He also tried a fresh recruit in Fil-German Denis Wolf who made a good impression playing up front with regulars Ian Araneta, Angel Guirado and Chieffy Caligdong along with second stringer Bahadoran.
"The team showed good spirits; no negative gestures, no negative movements in the face, stuff like that which happens sometimes in the seniors team. We should show this tape to some of the senior players and show them how a team can work, how fantastic a team can help each other and show very nice fighting attitude and never-say-die spirit," he said.
The last time Weiss called the shots for the Azkals, the hosts got sideswiped by David Beckham and LA Galaxy, 1-6, last December, their fall hastened by what he felt was lack of full concentration from his starstruck crew.
It seems Weiss liked this unit so much he considers bringing some of them along to Dubai for the Azkals' training camp next month and possibly the AFC Challenge Cup itself in Nepal in March.
"Honestly, I was a little bit worried ahead of the game because our preparations were close to zero. But I'm extremely proud of this team, who performed (up to par) against a good opponent," he said.
"Most of these players will get a reward, we'll be taking them to the camp in Dubai and we'll give them another exposure. It might be a case of only a few of the (Europe-based) professionals being able to come to the Challenge Cup so we'll likely rely on our homegrown players and support them," he added.
The Azkals have started training for the Challenge Cup but club commitments here have limited the nationals' time for sessions under Weiss.
"With this preparation, I'm a little bit worried with the results in the Challenge Cup, it will be very difficult. We as a team, we showed today that we’re always trying our best."
